Hey! It’s Mat! How are you? 😁

In today’s email we’re going to talk about:

• The Wide Event

• Shopify App Growth Blueprint: How to improve your churn

Let’s go! 🔥

The Wide Event

In 2025, The Wide Event is back in Paris!

The Wide Event was created in 2018, but it was a French event then. Since the last two editions, it has been international!

And we’re back for The Wide Event in early May 2025 🔥

Here is what to expect:

• 4 incredible speakers

• 200 people from all around the world

But it’s not just a Shopify Developer event! No… It’s an event for the whole Shopify ecosystem.

It means that you’ll find Partners, Shopify agencies, merchants, entrepreneurs…

Isn’t it the BEST moment to create new partnerships or find customers?

On top of that, with all the different types of people there, it will sure give you new ideas for your business!

This is the only event you can attend where the whole ecosystem is there! What an opportunity!

Remember something: each event is unique.

If you miss that one, you’ll never be able to get it back!

And trust me, if you have a Shopify App or if you’re an agency, you don’t want to miss the speakers that I selected 👀

As we say in French: it’s the crème de la crème 🇫🇷

Now the question: How can you attend??

200 tickets. Not more. They will be sold across my different channels: the newsletter, Twitter, Linkedin, Community.

And I heard Shopify is probably going to share it as well 👀

In the coming weeks, I’ll share the link to get your ticket, and it will give you plenty of time to get your flights, visa, and everything you need to come and visit Paris!

I hope you’re ready, because it’s gonna be the best Wide Event ever. 🔥

You want to sponsor? Reply to this email

Shopify App Growth Blueprint: How to improve your churn

If you’re running a Shopify app, churn is the silent killer you might be ignoring. Think about it: You’re getting more installs, maybe even more paying users—but if they don’t stick around, you’ve got a leaky bucket. And no matter how much water you pour in (new installs), you’re losing it just as fast.

The secret to fixing this? Tracking the right data and acting on it. With tools like Mixpanel, you can not only track churn but also discover exactly why users leave, where they drop off, and how to make them stay. Let’s break this down step by step.

1. Why Is Churn So Important?

Before we dive into the how, let’s talk about why churn is such a big deal.

The Math of Churn

Let’s say you start the month with 50 paying users and your churn rate is 50%. By the end of the month:

• You lose 25 users → Only 25 remain.

• Next month, 50% of 25 leaves → You’re down to 12 users.

See the problem? If you don’t fix churn, your user base shrinks every month. No amount of new installs will save you.

Churn and App Valuation

If you ever want to sell your app, churn is one of the most important metrics buyers will look at—sometimes more than your growth rate. A high churn rate signals an unstable business, and no one wants that. The golden rule? Keep your churn under 10%. Single-digit churn is ideal.

2. How to Track Churn Using Mixpanel

To improve churn, you need to track it first. Here’s how you can use Mixpanel to get precise insights.

Step 1: Track “Is Paying” Events

• Whenever a user installs your app, send an event: Install.

• When they start paying, send another event: Is Paying.

• Run a daily cron job to check if they’re still paying. If they are, send the Is Paying event every day.

This helps you track:

1. When someone starts paying.

2. When they stop paying (churn).

Step 2: Calculate Churn

To calculate churn for a specific month:

1. Start of Month: Filter users who triggered the Is Paying event on the first day of the month (e.g., Nov 1st).

2. End of Month: Add a second filter to find users who did not trigger Is Paying on the last day of the month (e.g., Nov 30th).

Example:

• Start of month: 500 paying users.

• End of month: 400 paying users.

• Churn = (500 - 400) / 500 = 20% churn rate.

Step 3: Track Revenue Churn

Here’s where it gets interesting. Not all churn is equal. There’s a difference between:

• User Churn: The percentage of users who leave.

• Revenue Churn: The amount of money you lose when users churn.

Example:

• 100 users pay $10 each → You make $1,000.

• 20 users leave → You lose $200.

But what if some of the remaining users upgrade to higher plans? If 10 users now pay $20 each, you gain $100 in additional revenue. So:

• $200 lost, $100 gained → Net churn = $100.

In some cases, you can achieve negative churn, where upgrades and additional spending outweigh lost revenue. This is the holy grail of SaaS businesses.

3. How to Reduce Churn

Now that you’re tracking churn, let’s fix it. Most people think the key to reducing churn is contacting users who left. Wrong.

Here’s why:
When users uninstall your Shopify app, they’ve already moved on. They’re not going to spend time explaining why they left—you’re just a plugin to them. Instead, focus on the users who stay. Here’s how:

The Power of Survival Bias

Ever heard of survivor bias? Here’s a quick explanation:

During World War II, military analysts studied planes that returned from battle to figure out where they needed reinforcement. They focused on bullet holes on the surviving planes. But this approach ignored the planes that never made it back—those hit in critical areas.

The lesson? Focusing on survivors (planes that returned) can tell you what works, but ignoring failures (planes that didn’t return) might lead to false assumptions.

In Shopify app terms: Stop trying to win back churned users. Instead:

1. Study the users who stay (your “survivors”).

2. Understand what keeps them loyal and double down on that.

Step 1: Talk to Your Power Users

Your “power users” are the ones who stick around for months or even years. Get on calls with them, send surveys, and ask:

• What do they love about your app?

• What frustrates them?

• What features do they wish you had?

The goal? Make your app even better for these users. Fix what they don’t like, double down on what they love, and you’ll attract more users like them.

Step 2: Optimize Your Pricing

If you only have a single plan, you’re limiting your ability to offset churn. Adding more pricing tiers can reduce churn and even drive negative churn.

Here’s how:

1. Introduce a higher-tier plan: If someone churns at $10/month, but another user upgrades to $20/month, your revenue churn decreases.

2. Use Usage-Based Pricing: Apps like Slack charge “per seat.” The more users a company adds, the more they pay. For Shopify apps:

   • Example: If your app helps stores make more sales, charge based on usage (e.g., % of revenue or number of upsells).

   • This way, as stores grow, your revenue grows with them.

Usage-based pricing ensures you can keep making money from big customers, even as smaller stores churn.

Step 3: Prevent Churn Before It Happens

Churn doesn’t happen overnight. There are signs:

• Users stop using key features.

• Dashboard opens drop to once or twice a month.

Use Mixpanel Flows to identify these signals:

• Track events like “Dashboard Opened” or “Feature Used.”

• If a user stops performing these actions, trigger an email or live chat to re-engage them.

Example:
If most users open the dashboard 10 times a month but some users only open it once, you know something’s wrong. Reach out to these users proactively:

4. Iterate Based on Data

Improving churn is an iterative process. Use qualitative (user feedback) and quantitative (data tracking) insights to test and improve:

1. Identify Issues: Use funnels to find where users drop off.

2. Make Assumptions: Why are users leaving? Is onboarding too complicated? Is the app missing key features?

3. Validate Assumptions: Talk to users and see if your assumptions hold.

4. Test Fixes: Simplify onboarding, tweak features, or improve pricing. Track the results and iterate.

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See you in the next email!

Mat 😁